Joe Manchin — Centrist Democrat, Budding French Pastry Chef

Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.) took a little ribbing this week when he admitted after a dinner with President Donald Trump that what he thought was an egg on his apple strudel was in fact a sculpted oval of ice cream.

“I’m thinking, ‘Boy, what do I do with this?’ ” Mr. Manchin told the Washington Post after encountering the suspicious egg perched on his dessert at Tuesday night’s bipartisan dinner at the White House. “But I’m thinking, ‘When in Rome,’ so I take a bite, and, lo and behold, it’s ice cream.”

Since then, Mr. Manchin said his difficulties distinguishing elements of his dessert have made him the subject of some mockery.

This Farmington boy had never seen a quenelle & now I can make one! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? #WVpic.twitter.com/rSKFGpyg1b

“It’s been brought to my attention that people have been making fun of me because I could not tell the difference between an egg and ice cream,” Mr. Manchin said in a video posted on Twitter Thursday afternoon. “When‘s the last time you saw an egg in Farmington, West Virginia, that was ice cream?” Mr. Manchin said, referring to the town where he was raised. “An egg’s an egg!”

In this instance, however, the egg at the White House was actually an elegant dollop of ice cream, formed into what’s known as a quenelle using a French cooking technique –as Mr. Manchin learned when he did a little digging.

“I was a little bit befuddled but then I’ve done some research and the research tells me this is a French quenelle,” Mr. Manchin said.

A quenelle refers to a “football-shaped scoop anything creamy and spreadable (ice cream, mousse, you name it) that makes restaurant desserts look so pretty,” according to a Bon Appetit magazine tutorial.

After doing his own Internet research, Mr. Manchin took spoon to ice cream to prove that with a delicate flick of the wrist, he too could transform the cold, white mass into a sleek quenelle.

“This Farmington boy had never seen a quenelle & now I can make one!” the lawmaker said in an accompanying tweet. “Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”

After seeing Mr. Manchin’s video, the James Rumsey Technical Institute Culinary Arts program, based in Martinsburg, W. Va., invited the senator to come give a demonstration of his quenelle technique. Mr. Manchin’s office said Friday he planned to accept the invitation.

Looks like he and many of the dem progressives are doing the same thing....making the meal look good, taste good yet NOT tell you of the massive calories it includes, has a very negative effect on your diabetes and blood pressure and cost you a fortune.....Seems that is exactly what Obamacare is....pricey, full of lie both obvious and under the surface and ultimately is damaging to your health. Once a dem progressive non-truth teller is always a non-truth teller....and what is on the surface, looks good and smell terrific can be your last straw in survival.